In search of Adam
By: Caroline Smailes
Publisher: Friday
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 333
ISBN-13: 9781905548552
Subjects: Sexually abused girls; Fiction
Description: "Left abandoned by the suicide of her mother and betrayed by her closest family, six-year-old Jude Williams&#x2019; childhood is fractured by the horror and experience of sexual abuse. Trapped within the limitations of her language and understanding, and unwitting party to a shocking family secret, Jude becomes the consequence of her mother&#x2019;s tragedy. As she moves through the 1980s, Jude&#x2019;s life is buffeted by choice and destiny and she collects experiences that layer her personal tragedy and plunge her into the darkest of worlds. The discovery of her mother&#x2019;s diary five years after her death reveals a brother she never knew &#x2013; Adam. Dead before Jude was even conceived, malicious whispers within the family point accusatory fingers at Jude&#x2019;s mother, Sarah. Sarah&#x2019;s diary starkly reveals a woman battling with post-natal depression, sinking herself into an anesthetizing blanket of alcohol and failing as a mother and wife. Jude&#x2019;s life is once again thrown into sharp relief. Externalising her internal pain with a series of attacks on her own body, Jude distances herself further and further from the few who may actually be able to help her. Powerful and haunting Jude&#x2019;s heartbreaking story is truly unforgettable as the very foundations of her life continue to crumble, leading her to a dreadful but inevitable conclusion." --www.carolinesmailes.co.uk/